I recently saw a similar article posted by another photography blog, but I wasn’t a fan of the solutions they came up with. I don’t agree with buying 3rd party lenses, batteries, or memory cards if they don’t offer a similar or better performance to reputable brands. I have had experiences with off-brand batteries being unsafe, cheap memory cards failing, and cheap 3rd party lenses offering results worse than the original iPhone when paired with a modern DSLR. So, I have compiled a list of ‘better’ ideas for saving money as a landscape photographer.

Use what you have (gear) and take care of it

Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Annie Leibovitz, and Edward Weston all had a thing in common when it came to gear. It wasn’t the reason behind or an excuse not to create beautiful and iconic images. So don’t let it be yours!

You don’t need the latest and greatest 40+ megapixel camera to create art that moves people. Use the equipment you have and take care of it so it lasts longer. I use Fuji and Nikon cameras that have been around for several years now and have no reasons to upgrade until they break down or I find a specific image I want to capture which is not possible without adding to my kit.

Explore your backyard

Most photographers like to travel to places to capture images. Many got into photography through the travel that they were doing before taking the hobby/profession more seriously. The truth is that most of us live in an area that is beautiful in its own ways that we overlook.

You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to get to beautiful locations or iconic spots for creating compelling images. I too believed once that it was a need to travel for landscape photography, but great photographers like Simon Baxter, Rachael Talibart, and Erin Tolie have demonstrated that there are typically interesting subjects not far from your home. Being open as to the subject you are going to capture and can wait for the right light can go far!

Watch YouTube Tutorials

Using free resources to learn is a great option! Sure, you could spend as much as you want on tutorials, workshops, and guides to accelerate your learning and grow in different areas. The free option of subscribing to different educational YouTube channels has been very beneficial to myself because I get a diverse range of teachers to learn from instead of spending to get one perspective on a subject matter.

Make some money w/ photography

Not exactly saving money on photography as a hobby, but saving money you make from pursuing it as a business is certainly an option for being frugal in photography! If you find the gear, software, tutorials, travel, and everything else to be pricey there is always the option of trying to have it pay for itself to some extent. Picking up some paying gigs, selling image licenses, and selling prints are all ways of making the art less of a drag on your finances!

Borrow gear from friends/family

You are likely not the only photographer in your family or circle of friends. You might even be lucky enough that someone shares the same brand of equipment so that you can borrow/buy unused gear. Borrowing or buying used things is going to save a significant amount over having everything new!

Sell what you don’t use

Along a similar line to borrowing or buying used from family is renting gear out or selling it used to others. If you haven’t used that nifty-fifty in years and never plan to again because you replaced it with something else in your kit don’t keep it around collecting dust on a shelf. It doesn’t do any good losing value waiting for that one day you might need it again. Just plan to rent it in the future if you do run into a rare situation where you need that lens-baby tilt-shift niche photography gismo you bought when in a creative slump a half-decade ago.

Buy nice or buy it twice!

I have bought three tripods in my photography journey. I could have just bought my last tripod and spent the same as the first two combined and pocketed the difference. I had a small travel tripod and then another heavy aluminum tripod, and both lasted about a year with all the use in seawater and on beaches. Then I bought a carbon fiber tripod which has lasted me for two years now without rusting or falling apart in any way. Spend the money on something that you use often enough like a tripod, lens, camera, and bags. Don’t cheap out if it is an often-used piece of kit or you will be buying twice in the future or more!

Travel in a group!

If you do need to travel to a photography location, it makes sense to do so in a larger group. Carpooling is a good economical choice for your wallet and the environment after all! Share a room or Airbnb and talk photography throughout the journey connecting with everyone in the group. You’ll make connections, capture more images, learn different approaches to photography, and save tons of money all along the way.

Research location/images beforehand

Make sure you know a little bit about the location you are photographing ahead of time. This way you don’t make expensive mistakes resulting in fines or worse like trespassing or breaking the laws/rules of a location. Parks and reserves often have posted regulations on how to behave while visiting, and it is just good form anyways when traveling somewhere new to respect the locals, land, and wildlife.

It can also help to prevent having to make a return journey because you visit at the wrong time of year or being at the wrong place entirely for the images you want to capture. A great example (before it closed off to photographers) was Upper Antelope Canyon and its spectacular beams of light in the slot canyon. You could only see these beams of light in the canyon during the middle of the day in the summer months because of the angle of the sun, but if you don’t do your homework you could easily be disappointed showing up in December!